AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He wets his lips, returns the nod, and steals one of the three pillows off the only one bed resting in the center of the room. Unceremoniously, he drops it on the floor in the corner. “’Kay. Night.”
His body morphs, clothing giving way to short fur, limbs condensing into tiny paws. It takes all of half a second and is finished before I can blink. Then he’s circling, circling, circling and tucking his tail under him as he lies down.
My heart squeezes, overwhelmed by the sheer adorableness.
Except there is a problem with this picture.
Sure, I might only be a fanfiction writer, but I know this scenario. Only one room at the inn. Only one bed in that room. New lovers. Or enemies. Stuck together. No other options but to share.
It’s a classic set up.
All good fanfiction authors, who spend hours crying in hot showers that simulate human warmth, fall back on the tried and true trope in at least one of their chapters. If not seventeen. Let’s just say there are a lot of opportunities for hotel malfunctions when you’re writing a character who is unexpectedly brought on tour with the dolivers_not_trending.
In zero of the chapters featuring this trope does the male lead turn into a chihuahua and make a dog bed for himself in the corner.
“That’s illegal,” I say, for purely logical reasons. I point at the bed. “We’re supposed to share.”
Oxf—, I mean, Ollie’s eyes open, little brown gems of distress, disgrace, other dis words. He does the tiniest head shake.
“I’m positive we’re supposed to share. We have been sharing already. It’s nothing new.”
Another tiny head shake.
“But—”
He sits up, shifts back into his human form, and perches on the pillow. “Sunshine, I am not going to share a bed with you anymore. I have not willingly shared a bed with you even once. You put me, a tiny animal with little legs, on a very big bed every night, imprisoning me in clouds of your intoxicating scent, condemning me to listen to my own heart bleed from the speaker of your phone.” He snuffs. “You are torture. Do forgive me if, while the taste of your mouth lingers on my tongue, I refuse to put myself in positions where I might lose control of what is and is not appropriate.”
“You hated sharing a bed?”
“It was what I lived for, yet every night I swore it might kill me.” He rests his cheek against his knee. “How I have wanted you… I am much too weary tonight to begin to explain all the things you make me feel with any accuracy.”
I can’t seem to catch a break with this man. What happened to awkward, shy, and careful Doliver? “I can’t believe I once thought I was the more charismatic one between us.”
He lifts a shoulder. “I was not at all expecting you to show up at Willoughby’s that night, nor was I expecting my weakness to present itself as it did.” He lowers his eyes. “I just… Talking to you for the first time…” The barest hint of a smile softens his lips. “I wanted so badly to talk to you more.”
Clasping my hands in front of myself, I say, “I loved talking to you, too. I can’t remember the last time I was that much of myself in front of someone other than my sister.”
“You were glowing. Like you always do when you think you’re alone. I’ve done my best to give you your privacy, but I apologize for the many times I found myself lost in the enchantment.”
Heart stuttering, I twist my fingers together. “Can I ask what happened at the end of our ‘mock date’? If…if this is how you see me, I just…don’t understand what went wrong.”
His fist clenches. “I remembered what I was, what you were, and what I was doing. Loving you—loving a mate, rather—is always a choice. Being with you that night didn’t feel like one. I was falling deeper than I felt in control of. I was coming very close to risking everything and being selfish enough to rewrite your entire existence for my sake, just so I could be with you longer and have endless nights like that one. When you told me about your ex, I returned to my senses. I couldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t just be another guy willing to use you to make himself feel better. So I panicked.” He rests his head back against the wall. “I panicked, and wound up hurting you in other ways.”
“It’s okay. I understand now that when you said things were complicated, it didn’t rest entirely on the fact you were just anxious.”
A sour smile tips one corner of his mouth into a dimple. “I’m probably going to regret telling you this so soon, but the fae can’t lie, sunshine. We can twist our words, leave things out, make distracting implications, and speak freely on matters of opinion so long as we don’t know the facts, but we can’t directly bear falsehoods.”
I seem to remember lore about that in some fanfiction I read once. Knowing it’s true makes shuffling through things Ollie’s said about himself sad. “How do I convince you that you being amazing is a fact?”
“Coming for my insecurities this late in the evening, sunshine? Brutal.”
“Well, I think you’re beautiful, and if you can’t tell lies, you should stop telling them to yourself.”
“Funny thing. Such rules don’t police a faerie’s thoughts. Sometimes, we don’t know we’re lying in our heads until we try to say things out loud. Other times, we hope, but the words don’t stop.” He wets his lips. “I am unworthy of you.” Not a single faltering moment. His smile turns weak. “So, you see? Is it any wonder why I am so scared now that there’s no turning back?”
My heart hurts for him, and I don’t know whether it’s because I’m worried or whether it’s because this feels a little too much like looking in a mirror. If there’s something I’ve felt my entire life, it’s unworthy.
Being with him is the first moment that feeling has subsided, if slightly, and that’s likely due to the distraction of magic. It’s harder to feel unworthy when a man has eaten dog food for you. It’s almost impossible to feel unworthy when the soulmate trope is on the table.
